7:40 PM, March 11, 2014

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

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Scrap-metal thefts aren’t just a Detroit problem, and Michigan needs strict laws — not the watered-down bills by the state Senate passed Tuesday.

That was the word from Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, joined by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson, Detroit Police Chief James Craig and a dozen other law-enforcement officials.

Former Detroit chief Ike McKinnon, now a deputy of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, urged anyone who has had metal stolen from their home, business, school, church or vehicle “to call your legislators in Lansing now” to ask for strong measures.

Representatives of Michigan’s scrap-metal industry have fought for years against stricter laws. Their preference, voluntary self-policing, “clearly hasn’t worked,” said Robert Stevenson, executive director of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police.

Investigators need a three-day waiting period before scrappers get paid to give investigators time to trace contraband, and scrappers should be paid by check to discourage addicts who seek instant cash, Stevenson said.

Jonathan Raven, a Lansing attorney who represents the metal recycling firm Friedland Industries, said the waiting period was “anti-business” and unfair to law-abiding people.

“The overwhelming majority of people who engage in these transactions are perfectly legitimate. These are people who cleaned out their garage, and they shouldn't be required to wait three days for their money,” Raven said.

State Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, countered: “If they’re legit, they won’t mind waiting three days for a check — it’s the instant cash that’s driving the illegal part of this.”

She introduced the original scrap-metal bills in 2011. The bills passed Tuesday had the three-day waiting period and other protections removed, she said.